Components with internal gear teeth, for example drive teeth or spline-shaft teeth, are brought together in the axial direction with other components such as shafts or spindles that have corresponding external teeth in order to produce an interlock between the two components. While bringing the two components together a so-termed tooth-on-tooth position can occur, so that brining them together in the axial direction is blocked. The two components then have to be rotated relative to one another far enough for the teeth to align with the corresponding tooth gaps, so that the blocking is eliminated. Such rotation of the components makes efficient assembly more difficult and slower. Moreover, there are cases when rotation of the components is not readily possible.
For example, this problem is known in the case of synchronization devices in gearwheel transmissions, where a shifting sleeve with internal gear teeth is pushed over a clutch element with external teeth. To facilitate sliding of the shifting sleeve and clutch element one over the other, at their front ends the teeth are provided with oblique or deflecting surfaces. The production of such deflecting surfaces on internal or external teeth is not problematic when the ends of the teeth are flush with the end faces of the components.
From DE 37 21 949 A1 components with internal and external gear teeth are known, which are chamfered at their front ends. In this case the ends of the teeth have a roof-like edge shape with roof-like guide surfaces extending from a cutting-edge-like ridge. The roof-like edge shape is produced by machining the ends with a profile cutter guided in a straight line or on a curved path, which engages in and cuts out the tooth gaps. This production method does not work when the internal gear teeth are offset inward relative to the end face of the component concerned, i.e. not accessible to a milling cutter of that type.
From EP 1 116 901 A2 a planetary transmission with gearwheels is known, whose ends are chamfered to facilitate assembly. The inclined or deflecting surfaces on the teeth are produced by cold forging, i.e. by means of a forging die that has to be produced for the purpose. The dimensional accuracy and surface quality of gear teeth produced in this way do not satisfy stricter requirements.